


Calling in a Favor

by HiddenTreasures



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Crossing Timelines, Episode: s02e13 Doomsday, Epsiode Fix-it: s02e13 Doomsday, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 14:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7644094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenTreasures/pseuds/HiddenTreasures
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A perk of being a Time Lord is the time travel, and the Doctor takes full advantage of that in order to save Rose from being lost to him in a parallel universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calling in a Favor

The Doctor watched in horror as Rose’s fingers slipped, millimeter by millimeter, off of the lever. He could feel her desperation and the deep, throbbing ache in her shoulders and fingers that she was trying to ignore.

_Doctor, help!_

Her fear and agony made his knees go weak and he nearly let go of his own lever. Slipping, slipping, slipping…

_Rose, hold on! Just hold on, love!_

_I can’t! I’m gonna… No!_

His breath left his lungs in a wheeze as her fingers slipped completely. _No, no, no!_ He reached for her and shouted her name, helpless to do anything but watch, unable to look away even as she fell closer to the Void.

Miraculously, he watched Pete Tyler appear out of thin air to catch her. He felt her confusion, then her relief, and finally her dread as she realized that even though she wasn’t going to spend eternity in the Void, she was going to spend it in a different universe.

She looked back at him, and though her fear, he felt a strong pulse of love and comfort. He wrapped himself in it while wrapping her in the same telepathic embrace.

And then she was gone.

He watched the Void crumple in on itself, closing him off from Rose.

_No, no, no!_

He was _not_ going to lose her. The Void wasn’t instantaneously sealed off, that’s not how that works, or else his bond with Rose would already be torn. He must have a bit of wiggle room. Like ripples in a pond, it would take a few moments for the walls of reality to completely close up again. If he could still feel her, then she could still feel him. But why wasn’t she jumping back to him?

_Doctor! Doctor, bring me back! Bring me back!_

Was his conclusion wrong? Were the ripples disappearing faster than he had planned? Was the Void already impenetrable? He desperately hoped not.

His mind reeled, trying to figure out why Rose wasn’t coming back. Maybe the gaps were too small for a person to slip through? If that was the case, he needed to hold open a crack for her. He would need the TARDIS to do that, but the TARDIS was forty-five floors down, and by the time he reached her and wrote the program designed for harnessing the fabric of reality, it would be too late.

_No, no, no!_

Time. He needed more… _time! That’s it!_

The Doctor sprinted towards the wall as he made dozens of mental pleas and reminders for his future self—hell, his past self, he wasn't picky—to come back and stabilize the gap enough for Rose to jump back.

The Doctor pressed his temple to the wall, searching, seeking... _there!_ There she was!

His bond with her was stretching further than it had ever stretched, to nearly painful proportions, and he waited with bated breath for the moment it would completely break. It wouldn’t be much longer now…

_Please, please, please. Where was himself? He needed help! He needed Rose!_

Finally, he heard the most beautiful sound in the universe: his ship's engines. His hair ruffled in the wind kicked up by two TARDISes landing. Wait. Two TARDISes?

He shrugged, and returned his attentions to the dimming spark of Rose in his mind. He pressed his temple to the wall as he desperately called out to Rose.

_Rose! Rose, jump back! Jump back, love, please! Jump back!_

He continued screaming in his head, willing her to hear him, willing her to listen. He could barely feel her now, and he prayed she was still able to feel him, and know what he was trying to say.

 _Please_ , he sobbed. He dug his forehead into the wall and threw his mind further towards her, sending spasms of pain through his head. But that was nothing compared to the pain he would feel if their bond completely tore. _Please jump back. Please, Rose! Come back to me! Please don’t leave me!_

The air rippled around him, and his skin prickled with energy. He sucked in a breath as his bond with Rose warped, and he was so sure that it was about to break. He braced for a pain that never came as a humanoid-shaped mass shimmered beside him, not quite solid yet. He feared the gap in the Void was too small for her to come through, and he felt sick that he may have just condemned her to a life in Hell.

_Doctor!_

His hearts raced as she finally solidified before his eyes, and his bond with her finally snapped back to its original intensity. His mind ached, a side effect of their bond stretching too far, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. Rose was here!

“Rose, my Rose!”

He rushed over to her and took her dimension hopper from her hands and tossed it to the floor before he scooped her up into his arms. She was shaking in his arms as sobs ripped from her throat. His eyes stung and he buried his face in her neck, breathing her in and basking in the golden glow of her in his mind.

 _I’m here, love, I’m here_ , he whispered softly, tightening his hold around her. _I’m here and you’re here._

He turned his head and pressed his lips to the side of her head, her hair tickling his skin. He leaned back slightly, still keeping his arms around her waist, and pressed his lips to her forehead. He peppered a series of soft kisses across her face, marveling at the miracle of her being in his arms.

He was about to dip down and catch her lips between his for a proper kiss, but he noticed she was staring at a point over his shoulder.

“Doctor, why are there two TARDISes?”

“Ahh, finally noticed us, did you?”

The Doctor blanched when he heard his voice speaking. He turned with Rose. Leaning up against one of the TARDISes were, well, himself and Rose. Future versions, he assumed, because that Doctor was in a blue suit he had never seen before and Rose’s hair was a bit longer. He felt weak with relief that his plan worked, and his future self came back to help him save Rose.

“Of course we came back,” that Doctor said, his nose wrinkling as though he smelled something foul. “Couldn’t just leave her in that parallel world, could we? Would cause a paradox, that would! My Rose would be gone, and then the Reapers, the end of the universe, and—”

“Don’t antagonize him,” the future Rose reprimanded, touching his arm. “You remember what it was like being him, don’t you?”

A muscle in his jaw twitched as he stared at the Rose they had just saved from the parallel universe, a pained look on his face.

“Doctor, what’s going on?” Rose asked, glancing between the future Doctor and Rose and her Doctor.

The future Doctor smiled softly, and he walked up to her. The lines around his mouth and eyes held a bit of tension, not unlike the lines around her Doctor’s face, and she very much wanted to kiss them away.

“We made it so you could come back,” he explained, cupping her jaw and rubbing his thumbs along her cheekbones. Her bond with the Doctor pulsed strongly in her mind, but there was a slight echo to it, and she realized that must be coming from this future Doctor. “It takes several seconds for the Void to completely become impenetrable again, even if it looks like it closed. Those gaps usually aren’t big enough for anyone or anything to pass through. To save you, I laid a memory trap for myself in the future to come back and use the TARDIS to stabilize and stretch the gap so it would be big enough for you to come home.”

Rose felt dizzy and confused. “But… how?”

He smiled wanly, and wiped away an escaped tear. “You’ll find out for yourself in due time.”

The future Doctor wrapped Rose in a hug as her body shook with sobs, while the other Doctor watched from across the room. He felt a pang of irrational jealousy; he should be the one comforting her.

“Stop that.”

He glanced over and saw the future Rose had come up beside him.

“You’re both my Doctor,” she said. “Every incarnation of you is my Doctor. So don’t go getting jealous of yourself.”

He smiled sheepishly at her, before he took a moment to look her up and down. She was so beautiful. She looked a bit leaner and her eyes looked older, even if her face didn’t reflect the years. He wondered idly how long it had been for her.

“That would be telling,” she said with a small smile. They were both silent for a few moments, watching the other Doctor and Rose embracing, before the future Rose turned to him. “You okay?”

“Oh, yeah, ‘course!” he said brusquely. “Why wouldn’t I be? Rose is safe. The universe is safe. Everyone’s safe.”

Rose stared at him with those big, gentle eyes, and he felt his resolve crack. The anxiety he had been trying so hard to suppress was creeping closer to the surface. His eyes stung and his throat felt swollen, and he blinked and turned away from her to watch his future self press kisses to the side of his Rose’s head.

A warm arm slid around his waist as the future Rose wrapped him in a sideways half-hug. Her arm around him felt so familiar and comforting, and he willingly took the comfort she was offering.

He turned towards her and returned the hug, letting out a shuddering breath as Rose began to rock him from side to side. He squeezed his eyes shut against the burning sensation and he buried his nose in her hair. She smelled like his Rose and felt like his Rose and sounded like his Rose in his head, even if she was echoing a little. His Rose, whom he had nearly lost forever.

“Shhh, you’re okay,” she whispered, tightening her hold around him. “Everything is okay. Everyone is okay.”

“I could’ve lost you,” he whispered into her neck.

“I know,” she murmured, carding her fingers through his hair.

She held him for a long moment, until he inhaled deeply and pulled away. Though his eyes were red and swollen, he managed to quirk his lips into a gentle smile. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to her forehead.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“Doctor?”

The Doctor turned at the call, and saw his Rose walking away from his future self. Her mascara lined her cheeks with black streaks and her eyes were still red and watery.

The Rose in his arms pressed a soft kiss to his lips before walking back to her Doctor. She slipped her hand into his, and they opened the door of one of the TARDISes and stepped into it.

“Oh, that one’s yours, by the way,” the Doctor said, turning back around. “No need to walk down forty-five flights of stairs. All my love to long ago.”

“And mine to days ahead,” the Doctor said, smiling in gratitude at his future self.

The future Doctor’s smile faltered, but he shut the door before the Doctor or Rose could comment.

They both watched in silence as the future TARDIS disappeared before their eyes.

“I do believe I was quite rudely interrupted earlier,” the Doctor said, turning to Rose. He placed his hands on her cheeks and ran his thumb along her bottom lip.

“By yourself,” she said with a cheeky smile, nipping lightly at the pad of his finger.

“How rude of me,” he murmured, tilting her head up as he leaned down. “I think I’ll need to have a word with myself.”

“Later,” she breathed, and she wrapped her back around the back of his neck and pulled him down for a proper kiss.

oOoOo

Two years (and a year that never was) later, the Doctor glanced at Rose from across the console. He’d woken up in a fit of anxiety, with a racing heart and a headache, and an inexplicable need to run far and fast. He’d slipped out of bed, trying not to wake Rose, but she had awoken to his anxiety too.

When he’d gone to pilot them somewhere—anywhere—he realized the coordinates were already set for London, Canary Wharf, at one-thirteen in the afternoon of July the eighth, 2007. His blood ran cold and his stomach churned.

“It’s time,” Rose whispered from behind him. He jumped, not expecting her to be standing so close. “Time to go rescue me.”

“Nah, we don’t have to go yet,” the Doctor said, feigning exuberance. “It’s a time machine! We can put that off for a little while longer.”

“Doctor,” Rose murmured, resting her hand over his where he was trying to set new coordinates. She could feel his overwhelming fear and panic, and she tried to send him calm reassurances and love. “It’ll be okay. We know it’ll be okay. We’ve already seen it.”

He went stiff at her words. She tugged on his arm, urging him to face her, and when he did, she wrapped him in a hug. He returned it fiercely and rested his cheek on the top of her head.

_What’s really bothering you, love?_

_I don’t… what if I…_ He exhaled sharply and held her impossibly tighter. _What if I do something wrong and it doesn’t work? What if I’m just a second too late? Or I don’t program the TARDIS correctly? Or I don’t make the gap big enough? What if I fail?_

Rose’s heart broke at the utter agony lancing trough him, and swaddled him in her love.

 _The TARDIS won’t let any of that happen_ , she reassured firmly. _And nor will I. Remember, Doctor, we’ll do this together. We’ll work together. We won’t fail_.

He nodded and ducked his head to catch her lips between his in a desperate kiss.

oOoOo

It hadn’t taken long for him to write the program that would allow the TARDIS to brace the gap of the Void. The TARDIS was exceedingly helpful, and wrote most of the program for him, as she and Rose tried to comfort and reassure him as best they could.

After a few hours and a quick lunch that the Doctor didn’t taste, he and Rose walked back into the console room.

“Ready?” he asked, threading his fingers through hers.

At her nod, he piloted them to the bottom floor of Torchwood Tower, in a spare cupboard. He pressed his lips firmly to hers before exiting the TARDIS to find his past self’s TARDIS. They had landed right in the middle of the battle, so nobody was really paying much attention to him as he ran across the floor to the other TARDIS, and he slipped inside without incident.

 _So far, so good_ , he told Rose. He took his sonic from his pocket and inserted it into the computer to transfer the program he and the TARDIS had just written. _Right, off we go!_

But the TARDIS wouldn’t budge.

“No, no, no,” he begged, “come on, don’t do this to me! Please!”

 _Doctor, it’s not time yet,_ Rose said gently. _We haven’t even opened the Void yet upstairs. Don’t worry, love. She’ll let us know when it’s time. She won’t let us fail_.

The TARDIS’s hum deepened in agreement, and he reluctantly listened to them.

He paced the TRDIS restlessly, wanting to move and to do something. The anxiety he had been feeling all day bubbled uncomfortably in his stomach, growing worse and worse as time ran on. Rose and the TARDIS did their best to soothe him, but they still couldn’t stop his brain from telling him every little thing that could possibly go wrong that would bring about the destruction of the universe, and result in his Rose being lost forever.

Just when he thought he was about to go mad, the TARDIS flashed her lights and started the dematerialization sequence on her own.

_Rose?_

_Yep, she’s flying for me too. We can do this, Doctor. Just breathe. I’ll see you in a couple minutes. I love you._

_I love you, too_.

He kept Rose’s mind tucked up against his as he monitored the program and the Void, watching as the gap was wrenched open by his TARDIS. It couldn’t stay stable like this for long, just long enough for past-Rose to jump back. He watched with bated breath as the gap in the Void was stretched just far enough for a human being to squeeze through.

Rose’s mind was still pulsing strongly beside his as he watched the Void violently snap shut, too strong for the TARDIS to rein in, and he took comfort in that fact.

His legs felt too heavy as he walked to the door, and he breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw his Rose exiting their TARDIS, and then his past Rose embracing his past self. They did it. He fumbled for Rose’s hand and gripped it tightly as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

Past Rose finally noticed them, and her eyes were glued to him. He gave her a small, reassuring smile as she whispered something in her Doctor’s ear. He gave his Rose’s fingers a squeeze before he dropped her hand and stepped towards their past selves.

“Ahh, finally noticed us did you?”


End file.
